Little Red
by FuckYourMoralBullshit
Summary: Before they can go over the river and through the woods, they have to get past the tollbooth run by a little short guy and a big dog. They don't want money. They want REDHEADS! and Ponyboy is halfway there! Will this completely ruin their springbreak?
1. TROLLbooth emphasis on TROLL!

**Soda's Point of veiw**

I swear, lately my luck has been really bad. You're probably sitting here thinking "common Sodapop, it can't really be all that bad, can it?" well it is. It's bad, real bad. I've got the worst luck ever because, while all the other teenagers out there get to spend their spring break playing Beer Pong, doing Jello shots and making out with everybody in sight, I have to go on a four day road trip to visit my grandmother. Yeah, I know right? It's unfair! We're gonna miss out on all the crazy St. Patrick's Day shindigs and green beer and all that! It pisses me off! And I'm pretty sure it pisses Darry off too, but he won't say.

As I already said, we're going down south to visit our grandmother. Her doctor called and said that she was really sick and that it would be best if she had some family over to help her out till she gets better. And of course, Darry being superman and all, he felt he had to drop everything- spring break included- and come right over! I swear Darry has lost all sense of what it's like to be a teenager. I know that everyone says you have to grow up eventually, but golly! Darry barely had a chance to enjoy the partying years of his life before he got stuck with-

Ponyboy lets out a loud, almost scary snore that yanks me away from my thoughts.

I was riding in the backseat next to Ponyboy. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't have minded this so much, ordinarily I would have wanted to sit by Ponyboy, But not today. Not while we're on this road trip. You see, the road trip is four days total. We're currently smack dab in the middle of the third day, and for whatever the reason is, Ponyboy is sleeping like a rock. And he has been sleeping like this since the first day. I don't know why, but Ponyboy is really bad about sleeping in cars. He can't stay still for more than two minutes before rolling over or stretching. This is really annoying, but sometimes it gets real bad. Sometimes he'll have a nightmare and start screaming, he kicks the back of the driver's seat causing Darry to have to pull over. And all of this just makes the trip drag on even longer.

To make matters even worse, Darry won't pull into a motel at night. He just stops on the side of the road and makes us sleep in the car. He says it'll save money!

That's ok, Darry, save your money. You're gonna need it to pay for the hospital bill if we have to spend an extra day on the road because of all this constant stopping! I swear I am going to kill someone in the car if something doesn't change soon!

We all stink… bad. We aint showered in about three days and Darry's man-funk is so bad that we finally rolled the windows down.

I crossed my arms and then caught Darry peeping at me through the little dashboard mirror. - You know the one attached to the window where everyone hangs little air fresheners shaped like trees.

Did I mention that we brought Two-bit along with us? Yeah, we did. He's riding shot gun.

Oh, yeah, also, he's drunk… but that's not new.

Two-bit is driving Darry crazy. He's sitting up in the front seat singing this weird song that I've never even heard before. If I didn't know better, I'd say that he made it up while he was drunk. But then again, he's always drunk so, technically the crazier things probably happen when he's sober.

"Two-bit," Darry said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Tell me when you see the giant tree that has what looks like a bunch of giant faces stuck to it. We're supposed to turn there."

Two-bit's annoying singing is replaced with a bunch of laughing.

"Darry we passed that about fifty miles back!"

Suddenly the car comes to a screeching halt right in the middle of the road. It's ok. We're not gonna get hit. We're on one of those empty country roads where there are hardly any cars. Hell, all there is for miles around is open field. There are a couple of cows out there grazing though and I have a pretty good feeling that they're gonna enjoy the show that comes with their grassy green dinner.-Lately it had been so sunny that Pony's hair got a little bleached. It changed from auburn to firecracker red. The sun is shining through it right now, making it a very shocking shade of red. I hope there aren't any bulls out there in that field. Ponyboy's bright red hair might cause some problems. Ha-ha!-

Darry looks over at Two-bit, and I swear, smoke starts coming out of his ears. I'm serious! In fact, I'm surprised that my ears aren't doing the same thing. I mean, common! He just made this frickin' trip about three hours longer than it already was!

"Well GOLLY, Two-bit! You didn't think about telling us this about this earlier!" Darry punches the steering wheel causing the horn to go off. I looked over at Ponyboy to see if any of this noise was messing with him. Sadly no. he's still out cold…

"That's right, I forgot, you're Two-bit. Thinking would be physically impossible because you don't have a brain!"

Darry reaches over and raps his knuckles on Two-bit's head a couple of time. Two-bit is so drunk he doesn't even flinch. Instead he just starts laughing.

I could see Darry getting mad. His face turned red, hot with rage and, for some weird reason, I imagined a small volcano in his head getting ready to blow up.

Darry suddenly opens the door on his side of the truck and climbs out. "All right, common get out," Darry says, closing the door behind him. He walks around to the passenger side and then jerks the door open. Two-bit had been leaning up against the window giggling about something stupid, so he fell out of the truck when Darry pulled the door open.

He immediately jumps up and dusts himself off, that goofy smile never fell from his face. So there they stood Darry- angry, red volcano man ready to explode and Two-bit, looking like some kind of crazy ass cartoon character.

Darry sticks his chest out and starts rolling up the sleeves on his favorite tight, black t-shirt. I noticed how sweaty he was and, once again, got pissed that he wouldn't stop at a hotel. I would kill for a shower right now…

"Alright, wise guy, I'm gonna knock some sense into that hollow noggin of yours!" Darry finishes rolling up his sleeves and begins tucking in his shirt.

Oh crap.

I glanced over at Pony. Thank god! He's still asleep. Ponyboy doesn't like it when we fight amongst ourselves. Hell, he doesn't even like it when we argue. he don't really care when it's play fighting but when stuff looks like it's getting serious he always get worked up.

This fight between Darry and Two-bit would really make Pony go off if he were awake. You can tell that it's a serious fight because Darry's tucking in his shirt. Things would have been ok if he had just stopped at the sleeves because when he does he's just bluffing. But he didn't stop there, he tucked that thing in. Tight, I might add.

"Now, since you're so dang stupid, allow me to be your teacher. Today's lesson involves a poem by yours truly. Mama would be proud, yes she would,"

Then again he might not be all that serious. I always noticed that he talked a whole lot when he was trying to psych his opponent out. And he was always trying to psych the other person out, whether he was serious or not. It's hard to tell with Darry, he's a weirdo.

I watched through the cab window as Darry ran his mouth off.

"Roses are dead, like how you're gonna be when I get done with you. Violets are blue like how your face is gonna be when I get through snatchin' you around and stuff. I don't know what color Forget-Me-Nots are-(I also can't recall what in the world they are)- what I do know is, you're not gonna be able to forget how my fist feels against your face because I'm buffer than a mu-clunker ~! Put your deuces up, clown. We about to throw down! Can I get some boxing gloves while I'm out here in the middle of nowhere? Who am I kidding? I can handle you! You drunker than a mug, I could pin you while I'm sitting in a chair!"

Yup, he's bluffing. Besides if he was real serious he'd be dancing around like them boxers always do when they get in the r- well, speak of the devil he's dancing around! Someone has to stop this before he hurts Two-bit!

I stared looking around for something to distract them with.

Suddenly I saw what looked like a small shack sitting smack-dab in the middle of the road a little ways up. The freaky thing is it wasn't there before. It just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Perfect.

I opened the cab door, climbed out, and rand over to where Darry and Two-bit were. –Darry was doing some kind of weird shuffling and Two-bit was just standing there looking confused and amused (_confused and amused_. Ha-ha. I'm a poet, just like Darry, and I didn't even know it! Ha!)

"Darry, hey, Darry there's somethin' kinda weird up the road," I said, noticing how scary and red he looked. Golly! Are we really related?

I turned and pointed in the direction of the shack.

Darry stops dancing, turns in the direction that I'm pointing and freezes.

He then shakes it off and looks back at me.

"I think we can ask them for some directions. What do you say?" As I spoke Darry shoved Two-bit back into the truck and closed the door.

He tells Two-bit that he'd deal with him later then he turns back around and faces me.

"Ok, let's go," He says smiling. "Maybe if we hurry up we can still make it there on time."

I watched in shock as Darry walked around to the driver's side and got back into the truck, acting like nothing had happened at all!

What the hell, man?

I opened the door and climbed back into the truck. Ponyboy… is still asleep… ugh!

We drove up the little shack in silence.

We stopped next to the shack to ask directions. We also stopped because there was a long yellow board type thing that stretched all the way across the road and there was no way around it.

The shack wasn't a shack. The shack was a tollbooth. Why the hell is there a tollbooth out here in the middle of nowhere?

I scooted over a little closer to Ponyboy to get a look inside of the tollbooth. At first I didn't see anyone in there, but then a little old man popped up out of nowhere and scared the crap out of Darry.

"Hello!" The strange little man said through the glass window. "Insert payment here." He gestures to the big round thing made of metal that was attached to the tollbooth.

He had a long grey beard and- for some odd reason- was wearing a red football helmet. I noticed that he didn't have any wrinkles on his face. That's weird. If you have that many grey hairs you should have at least one wrinkle. But he doesn't have any wrinkles. And I'm pretty sure if he took that helmet off he would have a full head of grey hair.

Darry shakes his head and tells the guy that he just needs help getting to our grandmothers house. He says the address and the little guy looks thoughtful for a moment.

"Directions are gonna cost you extra. Boy, you must be loaded!" The man chuckled and ran his tiny, gnarled fingers through his beard. "Heh, lucky little rich bastards…"

Darry's head snapped up and a look of confusion went over his face. "What?"

"What, are ya' hard of hearing now?" The little man's voice suddenly went really high-pitched. He sounded like a little kid! He yelled at Darry in his little kid voice. "I said, INSERT MONEY HERE! Gee, rich boy, buy yourself a hearing aid, would ya'?"

Darry's face turned red.

"Listen, old man-"

"No, you listen! This here is my road- ya' hear that, rich boy? THIS IS MY ROAD!" The little old man reaches down and puts his hand on something that I can't see form outside the booth. "Now either you pay up or…"

"I've had enough! I'm turning around."

"I'M WARNIN' YOU! PAY…. UP…. I'LL GIVE YOU HELL! I SWEAR IT!" The little old man's face turns as red as the football helmet he was wearing and sweat started running down his head at an alarming rate. _God_, I thought_, this crazy old coot is gonna have a heart attack and we're gonna be held responsible!_

Darry shifts the truck into reverse at the exact same time that the guy pulls down on that thing that I couldn't see. I'm not sure, but I think it may have been a lever of some sort.

Suddenly, Two-bit comes to life. "DARRY, STOP! HE'S GOT SPIKES ON THE ROAD!"

The truck, once again, comes to a screeching halt.

Darry turns his body at an awkward angle and looks out the window. I did the same. Our jaws dropped at the same time. There were huge, menacing metal spikes sticking up, going all the way across the road. The things were three feet tall and six inches thick.

Darry turns back around and cusses real loud.

I automatically looked over at Ponyboy. And… he's still asleep…

Darry sighs.

Ponyboy snores.

Two-bit grabs his stomach, jumps up and retches out the window.

Darry sighs again and finally gives up. He turns toward the little old man in the window- who now had a smug look on his face- and asks him how much it was gonna be.

The old man suddenly looks right into the back seat. More specifically, he looks right at Ponyboy. There is an odd moment when, if I didn't know any better, I'd say there was a look of hunger on his face. He licks his lips and starts salivating.

Darry's staring at the old man now, clearly getting a little creeped out. He leans over Two-bit and opens the glove compartment and takes out his wallet. He flips it open, takes out a five dollar bill and holds it up to the window.

"Will this cover it?"

The old man cackles in his little kid voice. "We don't accept cash."

"Well then what do you take?"

I found the creepy old man eyeing my sleeping little brother again. An eerie feeling crawled up my spine and I felt like I was about to be sick.

"Redheads."

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><p><strong>Well... that was interesting...<strong>

**What do you think. I'm gonna continue anyway...**

**REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW!**

"Redheads."


	2. We'll eat your grandma!   Oo  WTF?

**Well, I certaintly got more activity 4 this story than I expected...**

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><p>"Redheads."<p>

"Come again?"

"Geez, clean your ears out, boy! I said, REDHEADS! Now gimme your brother,"

"MY BROTHER? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Darry turns his head and looks back at Ponyboy. He turns back to the little short guy in the tollbooth. He tells the guy that he's crazy and tries to stick the five dollar bill into the metal thing. But then he jumps back when a big hairy monster that's foaming at the mouth pops up. The thing is terrifying. It has razor sharp fangs in its mouth. The freakiest thing about it is that it's standing on two legs so it's huge! I think it's almost as tall as Darry!

"Oh my god! Look at that dog, its huge!" cried Two-bit.

"That's right boy!" said the old man "He's big… bloodthirsty too. Better pay up. If you don't I'm gonna have to set this here doggy loose."

The dog pawed at the window, snarling, looking directly at Ponyboy's red hair. I scooted over closer to Ponyboy and wrapped my arms around him protectively. Don't worry, Ponyboy, I thought, these weirdoes aren't gonna hurt you.

Ponyboy stirred. Damn, why does he have to wake up at a time like this? Great, now he's gonna wake up see the dog and as soon as we get away from this freak and his dog we'll get back on the road and continue the trip- which will now be even longer- and Ponyboy will be having nightmares about big bad wolf monsters. Just great.

"Hey, if that thing bites one of us, you're gonna have one hell of a lawsuit on your hands. You don't look like a person who has very much money, so let's just save you some trouble. Let us through." How does Darry stay so damn calm? This has gotta be one of the craziest things that has ever happened to us! If that was me, I'd be ready to fight… what am I saying? I AM READY TO FIGHT! I'm also ready to get away from this frickin' monster of a dog before it eats one of us…

"What's going on?" Ponyboy asks, stretching with his arms in the air.

Oh no.

The old man's eyes land on Ponyboy and his red hair. He starts drooling. Darry notices the way that he was looking at Ponyboy and threatens to make him take a bite out of his fast flying fist.

The old man cackles. His eyes glaze over suddenly and he starts mumbling something about a succulent, tender leg from a redhead. What a pig! One part of me wanted to get out of the car and punch the shit out of this pervert, the other part of me just wanted to stay inside the car and protect my little brother from the big bad wolf.

Suddenly Ponyboy screams. He had seen the wolf and was now curled up in my arms, shaking so hard you'd think we were in the dead of winter. Of course we weren't, though. It was as hot as it could possibly get.

I automatically wanted that thing dead. That's right, I said _thing_. That aint no dog. Hell, that's anything but a dog. That thing needs to be shot. Under normal circumstances I would have never thought about killing an animal. I mean, I love dogs. It's just that this stupid thing is scaring my baby brother half to death.

"It's ok, Ponyboy," I whispered "That stupid mongrel isn't gonna be able to get to you…"

"Watch your mouth, human!" said… THE WOLF? "That's right… I can talk!"

The wolf is talking…

Ponyboy is crying now.

Darry is just sitting there all bug-eyed.

Two-bit is basically mirroring Darry.

"Give us the kid!" Said, the little old man, "If you don't…"

"IF WE DON'T WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?" Darry is in rage now. His face is redder than when he was threatening to beat up Two-bit. His face is redder than the little short old man's helmet!

The wolf growls and then looks back at the old man. The old man nods then mutters something that sounded like, "you tell em'!"

"We'll eat your grandma… I mean, she isn't a redhead, so she won't be as luscious and fall-off-the-bone good as your little brother… but, we think she'll make an excellent Mutton substitute. She'll be…" The dastardly wolf stops, licks his chops and looks directly at Ponyboy. "…Stick-to-your-ribs good!"

...

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><p><strong>o.O uh-oh! Ponyboy! no, no, no!<strong>

**lol If you review, I'll update some time real soon! XXXDDD The more Reviews I get the sooner I update! **


	3. He's a troll!

Preface

I felt like screaming. Seriously! I just felt like throwing my hands up in the air and screaming at the top of my lungs. Screaming till I was so hoarse that it was painful! That's the only way that I would be able to react right now. Nothing makes sense, and when nothing makes sense I always feel like screaming. God, it feels like my brain is melting! I need meaning and I'm not getting any. Ok, let me try and get this straight. There is a tollbooth in the middle of the road, right? Right! And the tollbooth is run by a little short guy… precisely! The little short guy won't let us go because he wants to eat my little brother and he says that if I don't give him my brother he'll go after my grandmother, have her served up on a big fancy dish and they'll eat like kings for the first time in three months? Uhm… can I get back to you on that?

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Cannibals! That's what I said. CANNIBALS!

These- these freaks…. I can't think of anything else to call them, really. What can I say? I don't think that there's anything left to be said in a situation like this. Its times like this that you just need to break out the shotgun. I mean, you don't deal with weirdoes like this with words, they won't listen! They just won't.

I sighed and wished for my old hunting rifle. I imagined shooting that little short old man right between the eyes. Then I imagined doing the same to his stupid beast of a dog.

Ponyboy's long red hair is getting soaked with his tears and my tee-shirt is starting get a little bit nasty. My neck's starting to feel a little bit wet and I'm starting to wonder if it's snot, tears or drool… or all three…

"You're a sick man," Darry told the short guy. "A sick, SICK man! What kind of person would even joke about that?" Darry had a disgusted look on his face that basically told how all of us felt at the moment.

Ponyboy sits up and stares at the wolf. The wolf stares back at him. Ponyboy wiped his face on his shirt, blushing. He looked like he was trying to hide how scared he was, but it was hopeless… he was shaking worse than a druggie on a detox.

The little old man starts cackling.

"This isn't funny!"

"Oh, yes it is! This is just RICH! IT'S EVEN RICHER THAN YOU, RICH BOY! Aint it rich, McGuffin?" The little short old man elbows the big freaky wolf guy. The wolf smiles- scaring the crap out of all of us- and spoke.

"It's beyond rich! I mean, it's not every day that we get to show off the family portraits!" The wolf said with that freaky little grin still on his face.

"You stupid humans don't believe that we really want your brother. Y'all think that this is some kinda practical joke- well it's not! This shit is real! We really want your brother, so we can really eat him… and then y'all can all go free. But…" The wolf pauses.

The little old man bends over and I hear a bunch of rustling, like he was moving a bunch of junk around. When he pops back up he's holding five pieces of paper. He holds up one of them and I thought I was gonna throw up. To much of me, Darry, Two-bit, and –especially- Ponyboy's horror, the piece of paper had a picture of two horrible creatures with blood red eyes and sharp fangs. One of them was real tall and hairy. The other was short and had a grey beard… both of them were covered in someone else's blood. They were looking right into the camera, their eyes piercing my very soul. In the next picture, it shows the two creatures standing next to an innocent little girl; she couldn't have been any older than twelve. She had red hair and freckles. The girl was smiling like she thought it was some kind of joke. The creatures were posing in a funny way, with their mouths open, they were holding forks and knives. Their eyes were normal is this picture.

This picture would have been hilarious any other day. Any other day I would have laughed my ass off at this. Any other day, not today though…

I heard Two-bit swear as they showed the next picture.

In this picture the little girl was sitting down on the ground, talking happily with the little short old man… unaware of the wolf standing right behind her… his eyes are the color of blood.

In the next picture... the little old man and the wolf are sitting at a table in the middle of a forest. The table is set up real fancy- tablecloth, candles, centerpiece, the whole 9 yards- at first I thought that it wasn't all that bad… but then I noticed the giant silver platter with a lid covering it sitting right beside the centerpiece and completely changed my mind about it being okay.

In the last picture… OH MY GOD!

Everybody in the car swore at the same time.

Two-bit gets up and retches out the window again.

I felt like doing the same thing.

In the last picture, the lid was off the platter and the little red headed girl was lying on it, she was all cut up and bruised. Fresh blood was oozing out of her onto the clean white table cloth and... There they were… the EVIL little short man and the big bad wolf. They were on top of the table covered in the little girl's blood, biting big chunks out of her thighs…

Ponyboy looked paler than ever.

"Oh my god…" Ponyboy whispered. "They actually exist."

"What was that, Ponyboy?" I asked.

"He's a troll..."

Suddenly I remembered the stories mom used to read to us when we were little kids. The stories were about tinny men with long beards who live under bridges and won't let you pass until you do whatever stupid thing they tell you to do. Sometimes it's real simple and you just have to solve a riddle. Other times you aren't so lucky and it's something nearly impossible.

The little old man looks at Ponyboy and bares his teeth. He runs his tongue across them… then his eyes turn red… blood red…

The troll looks directly at me with his blood red eyes… and if I didn't know any better… I'd say that he was looking into my very soul…

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><p><strong>ooooooohhhhh! A TROLL! OMIGOD! I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING! OOOOOHHHH!<strong>

**LOL**

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	4. Let's Make A Deal

**Well, for whatever my reason was I ended up doing about three quarters of this chapter in Cherry Valance's point of view.**

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><p>EARLIER THAT DAY<p>

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><p>...<p>

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"Yeah, Glenda, chill! Have a beer. Stop being so dang responsible!" slurred Miranda.

"You're such a stick in the mud!" wined Marcia.

I couldn't agree with Marcia more. I mean, common! It's spring break. Even if you're the so-called "designated driver" you should get to have a couple of beers. What are the odds of getting into a wreck out here in the middle of nowhere anyway- one in a million? Exactly! So what if we get drunk? So what if we don't sleep. We're just having fun!

Miranda- riding shot gun- leans over towards Glenda with her bottle of special St. Patrick's Day beer and tries to waterfall it into Glenda's mouth. Glenda won't open her mouth though. Instead she swerves over into the left lane like a maniac and elbows Miranda in the ribs.

"Shit! What the hell?"

"CUT IT OUT! I'm the only real sober one left in here," When Glenda said this I couldn't help but glance over at Latoya, on my right side- a tall, super thin, colored girl with long black hair- was wearing nothing but her bra and panties. They were mismatched. The bra was black; the panties were a bright red semi thong. She had her head out the window and was howling like a mad dog.

I then glanced over at Marcia, on my left side. - She is a bit self-conscious, so for a while she still had on her crop-top. But eventually she was just as underdressed as me and Latoya.- she has her head out the window and her short brown hair is blowing all over her head. She's singing _Blue Suede Shoes_ at the top of her voice and at some points Latoya comes in with the chorus. They sounded pretty damn good, so I pushed open the sunroof, stuck my head out and joined in. With the wind in my hair and the beer in my hand, I couldn't help it. I wound up laughing about how my father wouldn't approve one bit.

He thinks me, Marcia, and Glenda are spending spring break at Miranda's house. What he doesn't know is that we're out on the road with a colored girl, on our way to one of the biggest, maddest, nastiest ravers that there has ever been. This party is supposed to make party history.

Just by attending it, you'll be making history.

The party is going to be held in this ginormous barn, way down south, in a big ditch, in the woodsy area that's you see three left turns after you pass the tree that looks like it has a bunch of faces stuck to it.

I heard that the ditch is a whole three miles long in diameter and the barn takes up over three fourths of it! How mad is that? I can't imagine the time and money that must have gone into building it. What's even madder is what happens to the thing after all the partying is done. They burn the place to the ground! Every year they burn it to the ground in the heat of the party and yet every year you return the place is right back there in the same old spot ready to be partied in again. IT'S MADNESS!

Latoya says that the guy who sponsors all of this is her uncle's friend's cousin's baby sister's baby mama. (From what Latoya's told me, her uncle's friend's cousin's baby sister is a dyke. That is absolutely fascinating.)

I reached back and pulled the blue ribbon, releasing my red hair to the wild hot wind coming at my face full speed. Glenda was driving at a full sixty miles an hour and I had my head out the sunroof. The wind was so loud that I couldn't even hear Marcia and Latoya screeching that Elvis song at the top of their voices. All I could hear was the wind in my ears. And with the sun beating down on me, the alcohol in my system- and the fact that I was in my bra and panties out in the open quite a ways away from home- I was starting to feel kinda high. I threw my arms up in the air and hollered out a bunch of rubbish about being on top of the world. Then after that I dropped back down into the car, only to be greeted by Latoya's red thong and Marcia's plain white undies.

I looked down at my own. Ha-ha. My crotch says hello.

Miranda throws back he head and laughs really loudly in her drunken stupor. Out of all of us, Miranda is the one who can hold her liquor the least. She didn't even finish her first beer before she started undressing. Miranda's kinda crazy, in a fun way though. Some people would consider her a bit of a whore- but I don't! That's just another fun quality about her. She doesn't judge anybody. Ever. She'll run with anybody, no matter what they look like. Especially when she's drunk. Its' like the alcohol impairs her ability to look directly at a person and see them for who they really are! She doesn't drink a whole lot, but when she does she usually wants everyone else to drink with her- hence the reason why she wanted Glenda to get in on the action.

Glenda is… kinda uptight sometimes. She is always looking to avoid trouble by all means. She's not a complete square though. One time we got a hold of a joint; she took a couple of hits and went wild! All I'm saying is this: Glenda may seem like a goody but when she cuts lose, SHE CUTS LOSE! You aint seen a lose woman till you seen Glenda at a party. She and Marcia will stop a random guy in a party and get all up on him.

Marcia…

I looked over at Marcia as she sank back into the car and took a big swig of her green beer.

What can I say? She and Glenda are like two pees in a pod. Marcia isn't as controlling as Glenda though. I wouldn't say she's shy. Oh hell no! She's anything but shy. She's just quiet. But don't let her quiet looks fool you; she's just a freewheeling as Miranda.

Marcia, Miranda, Glenda, and I are all besties. Glenda's the lead cheerleader, so of course with her in our group we rule the school. (I'm a cheerleader too, so it was pretty easy for us to become friends.)

Then our school became integrated. For some odd reason it seemed like being friends with Negro's was… trendy. So after a whole lot of discussion, we decided to add a Negro to the group.

And that's how we became friends with Latoya.

At first we just had her because… it was trendy. But then over time we grew to like her. So she became an official part of our group. Latoya is always inviting us to come to certain things, and most of the time we do. But, you know how my father is such a tightwad. I'd always have to lie and say that I'm going over to Glenda's house- My father likes Glenda. He says that she's a shining example of how all young women should behave. (Little does he know Glenda's a real slut when she lets go.)- Also, if he ever found out I was partying with a whole bunch of Negros and getting drunker than a mo-fu- whenever I was supposed to be at Glenda's house… I'm pretty sure he'd never let me outside again.

Latoya's one of those people who always "lives in the moment". Everything she does seems a little risky. Sometimes we have to watch out for her, because she's been knows to get into all kinds of crazy situations. Most of the time we have a hard time keeping up with her, she's always so far gone when she's at a party she sometimes forgets we're with her. She's still a really awesome friend though. I sometimes find I get along with her even better than I do with Marcia. Sometimes. Not all the time. Onetime I made her mad. I regretted that. She yelling at me and cussing me out in English and Spanish. (I had no idea she spoke Spanish) Long story short: don't make her mad.

"Is that a tollbooth?"

Next thing I know we're pulling up next to a small wooden shack with a tin roof, a small door and a big metal thing sticking out of the front of it. (I guess that's where the money goes.)

Suddenly a tiny old man pops up in the window.

He has a long grey beard and, for some odd reason, is wearing a red football helmet.

He's smiling at us sweetly. We mirror his smile.

"Well, hello ladies. I hope you're having a swell spring break," The little old man says.

"We are, sir," Glenda says, reaching under her seat and pulling out her small black clutch. "I just wish it weren't so dang hot out here!"

The old man sighs and I notice that he's sweating worse than anything I've ever seen. I don't think that someone his age ought to be closed up in that little old shack… especially in this weather. Why does he need to work? Shouldn't he be getting some form of a check? You know social security? I know he should. After all, my dad is one of the guys in charge of writing the checks. Man, when I get back home I'm telling him about this old guy.

The little old man wipes some of the sweat off of his forehead. "I second that! This heat will be the death of me… two fifty seven."

"Huh?"

"That'll be Two dollars and fifty-seven cents."

"Oh!" Glenda exclaimed, unclasping her clutch and then reaching in and pulling out ten dollar bill. She hands him the money and then tells his to keep the change.

The old man's smile widens and I suddenly notice he's staring at me. I try to shake off the freaky feeling that something was crawling on me.

The old guy pushes a button inside the booth and then the long yellow thing that was stretched across the road went up out of the way.

We all wave goodbye to the tollbooth operator and drive off down the road.

"Miranda, toss me one of them green beers!" Latoya says, running one of her hands through her long black hair.

Miranda leans down and opens up the small red cooler under her seat. She pulls out a bottle of beer and hands it to Latoya.

So what if we get drunk. So what if we don't sleep. We're just having fun… and we don't care who sees…

Latoya takes a big gulp of her beer, lets out a loud "whoop!" and sticks her head out the window. She's still in nothing but her bra and underwear.

Marcia and I glance at each other before copying Latoya.

Once again, sun is shining down on me, the wind is in my hair… and I'm feeling… high~!

So what if we go out! That's how it's supposed to be…

When you're a teen this is how things should always be. Teens shouldn't have to worry about behaving a certain way and having class. Teens are supposed to be like free-range horses…

Living young and wild and free…

***~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…*~Lil Red~*…**

"Well, unless you can find another redhead and bring it to us I really don't see any other way around it. So, give us the boy and be on your way…"

"WAIT! You said we can bring you another redhead?"

"Look, rich boy, I don't really see the point of discussing this with you. Truer than a goose, you aint gonna be able to find another redhead in these here parts."

"But, let's say that we do find another one… you'll take that one and let us go… with Ponyboy?"

That's basically how the negotiation went. Darry sat there threatening the evil little troll and calling him all kinds of names while he just sat there looking like he was getting bored or something. I just sat in the back seat with my arms crossed, getting more and more impatient. Impatient and angry. Impatient because I have to waste my entire spring break in the back seat next to my little brother who just now woke up, only to have the living daylights scared out of him by some kind of crazyass roadside freak show that claims they want to eat him! I'm angry because all of this is just causing the road trip to slink along even slower. For every second we spend sitting here arguing with these cannibals I have to spend another second in the car after we get back on the road. Doesn't get much more annoying than that!

I let out a loud annoyed sigh, catching Darry's eye in the little dashboard mirror. He looks just as annoyed as I feel.

"Ha! That's so hilarious that I just had to laugh!" Said the evil troll of an old man. "You know what; I'm going to HUMOR you, Rich boy! Heh! If you can actually bring back another redhead- ALIVE, KICKIN' AND SCREAMIN'- then I PROMISE I'll let y'all alone. For good. Troll's honor!" he said, holding his left hand up to swear.

Darry looks at the guy incredulously.

"Why should we trust that you're a man of your word? How we know you're not trolling-I mean, tryin' to pull a fast one?" Darry asks narrowing his eyes.

The little troll dude says, "Hmm" and scratches his beard. "Well, ya' could make me swear on the bible but I don't see how that would do no good seeing' as I loves to burn me some crosses at one in the morning… guess you'll just have to trust me," He said winking at Darry.

The long yellow board that was stretched all the way across the road slowly lifts up and the little old troll tells us to "Git goin'!" before he changes his mind.

Darry immediately steps on the gas, getting us out of there as quickly as possible.

And so the adventure begins!

...

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><p><strong>Well, evidently something very strange has just happened...<strong>

**Feel free to voice you opinion on this in a review... BTW, i'm not giving you an option! lol If you don't review, I'll come through the computer and hit you with a car! XD)**

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